The only way is up

Pedro Hernandez Mateo, mayor of Torrevieja, used an empty cardboard box to demonstrate his proposed modification to the PGOU (General Plan of Urban Arrangement) for the town in a special plenary session of the town council.

Turning the box up on its end, he explained why he now wants to build 27 tower blocks of up to 30 stories high. The mayor claims that building upwards will save 75% of the land for the use of tourists. Previously, buildings in the town were restricted to five floors in the centre of the town and seven on the coast. Building upwards is the model adopted in Benidorm. Sr Mateo now sees it as the way forward for Torrevieja.

The proposed locations for these tower blocks are the beach at Poniente, in the campico of San Mamés, the beaches at Los Locos, Los Náufragos and in La Mata.

Actually this is the third attempt to get approval to build tower blocks in Torrevieja. The first two in 1998 and 2001 were not approved by the Conselleria de Territorio de la Generalitat Valenciana. So although the plan was passed at the council meeting yesterday, it has a long way to go before it can come into fruition.

With 30,000 houses pending construction, the opposition parties question the wisdom of this proposal. They also point out that Torrevieja is is in a zone of high seismic risk.

Local mayors in Spain are very ambitious with their PGOUs. Just look at the areas of development in Algorfa and San Miguel de Salinas for example. Sadly the plans in those two towns have created huge building sites which may never be completed. Thankfully Bigastro has much less opportunity for such expansion. Even still, we have several building sites which have more or less stagnated.